Diet in the Wild:Omnivorous,
including insects, other arthropods, snails, fruits and flowers.

Conservation Status: Not
protected.

Location in the Zoo: Herpetarium

Physical Description:It is one of the more larger
lizards of this genre. It has a large pyramidal head. The head almost
looks like the tail. You can be fooled sometimes by a quick glance on
which end is which. This is a feature that will set this lizard all by
it self from the many skinks. The trunk is is very long and thick and
flattened. It has strong limbs and claws with short toes. It has thick,
rough cone shaped plates on the top of his head. On his belly side the
plates are smaller and smooth and contain about 20 or 30 rows of scales
around the middle of the body.They also have osteoderms which is bony
plates within their scales. This is also where they get their name
Shingleback because it looks like shingles on a roof. The color also
varries that ranges from a white to dark gray to reddish.

Special
Adaptations:
These lizards are very lethargic and slow moving. They will often bask
in the sun on roads, and since they are slow they usually get ran over
by cars. They are usually active during the heat of the day or midday.
They usually eat plant food than animals, but their teeth are large and
have strong jaw muscles to break snails' shells and beetles. They use
their sight in individual identication, as well as in prey
identification. They also have a keen sense of smell. They can use it
to identify other species, sex, and sexual receptivity of the females.
When they know danger is coming or around they will put itself in an
arc and will stick out its blue tounge through the reddish brim of his
mouth while hissing. They will rarely bite so this is a way to try and
scare off the threat. Althogh it is slow, it can run pretty
quickly if there is an emergency.

Reproductive Behavior:

Mating seasons usually begins in September to November.
This is also when the males become more aggressive. They use thier
sight to choose their mate. The Females usually have scars from the
males teeth during mating season so it is very rough. These
lizards form long term pair bonds. Sometimes the same pairs will mate
with each other for more years. The Females will give birth between
December and April. They can breed every year as long as they have
enough food. When the babies arrive, they usually eat the placental
membrane that is around them. Within a couple of day they will shed
their skin and they will be able to leave. These babies are big babies
when they are born, usually they are about 220 mm and 200g. Females
give birth to two or three babies, rarely one.

Social
Organization::
Solitary, Family Groups, Communities?

The Animal at the Zoo:It was probably the worst day
to go observe these two lizzards at the zoo when I went. It was cold
outside and about a million kids running around since all the schools
decided to have a field trip to the zoo on that specific day. Since it
was cold, they all decided to go into the herpetarium. So whenever I
got a chance to observe them I tried to write as much observation as I
could. When I first saw them they were not moving much at all, but
sleeping in the shade. I assumed they just finished from basking under
the heat lamp and needed to cool their bodies off since they are cold
blooded lizzards. I also noted that when they were sleeping they were
laying on top of each other. This might show a perfect example on how
these lizzards share long term bonds. I could not notice anything else
on their behaivor while they were in their cage, except for the fact
they seemed to have a severe case of apathy. With all the kids that
came by beating on the glass, they did not move one bit. Maybe they got
acustomed to seeing humans, but if they did could that propose a threat
to themselves if they were ever to be released back in natural habitat?